Citation:

Hernandez, C., L. Sharpe, C. Jackson, M. Harwell, AND T. DeWitt. Connecting Stakeholder Priorities and Desired Environmental Attributes for Wetland Restoration Using Ecosystem Services and a Heat Map Analysis for Communications. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. Frontiers, Lausanne, Switzerland, 12:1290090, (2024). https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2024.1290090

Impact/Purpose:

Environmental restoration projects, including those for wetlands, often have a diversity and competing array of user and stakeholder interests. Furthermore, making sure that the restoration and monitoring goals include those human benefits perspectives (i.e., ecosystem services) can be difficult to explicitly define or become contentious whenever a perspective is not clearly considered, potentially leading to a lack of public support or a failure to achieve desired beneficial use outcomes. This study involves a case in Tillamook Bay, Oregon, USA, called the Tillamook River Wetlands to demonstrate a multi-criteria decision analysis approach to integrate community stakeholders, their benefits and environmental attributes of interest, into the restoration decision making and design process. We also suggest ways to more directly involve stakeholders and to present the analysis to the public.  

Description:

Framing ecological restoration and monitoring goals from a human benefits perspective (i.e., ecosystem services) can help inform restoration planners, surrounding communities, and relevant stakeholders about the direct benefits they may obtain from a specific restoration project. We used a case study of tidal wetland restoration in the Tillamook River watershed in Oregon, USA, to demonstrate how to identify and integrate community stakeholders/beneficiaries and the environmental attributes they use to inform the design of and enhance environmental benefits from ecological restoration. Using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Final Ecosystem Goods and Services (FEGS) Scoping Tool, we quantify the types of ecosystem services of greatest common value to stakeholders/beneficiaries, that lead to desired benefits that contribute to their well-being in the context of planned uses that can be incorporated into the restoration project. This case study identified priority stakeholders, beneficiaries, and environmental attributes of interest to inform restoration goal selection. This novel decision context application of the FEGS Scoping Tool also included an effort focused on how to communicate the connections between stakeholders, and the environmental attributes of greatest interest to them using heat maps. 

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